Pitch perfect

Trejohn Skinner is no stranger to beautiful music, having competed with one of the nation’s top a cappella groups as a student at New Manchester High School in Douglasville, Ga.

In October, the Berry freshman and InToneNation soared once again, claiming runner-up honors at the international Varsity Vocals AcaOpen in New York City. Impressively, they were the only high school group in the competition.

Because he was still in high school at the time of qualification, Skinner was able to join his old friends for the competition. He said it was a little intimidating to be the only high school group in contention, but they knew they deserved to be there.

The group began competing Skinner’s sophomore year, drawing inspiration from the movie Pitch Perfect. By his senior year, they were national high school champions.

“When we started out it was really scary, because a lot of the groups had been doing it for a while and had won championships, but once we did it, it was really fun,” he said.

Skinner, who also performed in Six Flags Over Georgia’s summer production, Rhythm & Grooves, is excited to be pursuing his dream of a career in music education at Berry. Drawn by the welcoming nature of the campus and the quality of the music department, he is already lending his voice to such ensembles as the Berry Singers, Berry Men’s Choir and Berry Voices. His goal is to one day educate and encourage young performers, just as his teachers have done for him.

“I saw the impact my high school choral director had on his students’ lives,” he said. “And I wanted to be able to do that too.”

You can see InToneNation in action in this YouTube video. The group also has an album, The Beginning, available on all music platforms.